In this Jan. 27, 2016, file photo, an Aedes aegypti mosquito is photographed through a microscope at the Fiocruz institute in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. Volunteer Google engineers in San Francisco and New York are working with UNICEF counterparts to create a system that combines several types of data to help predict where the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads the Zika virus, might next be particularly active, helping in eradication efforts. Zika has become an epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean since last fall. Felipe DanaAP

In this Jan. 27, 2016, file photo, an Aedes aegypti mosquito is photographed through a microscope at the Fiocruz institute in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. Volunteer Google engineers in San Francisco and New York are working with UNICEF counterparts to create a system that combines several types of data to help predict where the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads the Zika virus, might next be particularly active, helping in eradication efforts. Zika has become an epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean since last fall. Felipe DanaAP

A team of researchers led by a Florida State University scientist announced on Friday that they may have found “an entry point” for establishing a causal link between the Zika virus and microcephaly, a birth defect in which a baby is born with an abnormally small head and an underdeveloped brain.

On the same day researchers announced their findings, Florida health officials said they confirmed one new case of Zika virus infection in Miami-Dade, raising the countywide total to 23 people, most in the state. Broward has seen six confirmed Zika infections.

All of Florida’s 48 confirmed Zika infections were acquired by travelers outside the country, state health officials said. Four of the cases are pregnant women, though state health officials declined to identify the counties where the expectant mothers reside or the places where they traveled.

The Florida Department of Health’s Zika Virus Information Hotline has assisted 909 callers since its Feb. 12 launch. The hotline number is 855-622-6735.

Pregnant women are considered to be at greatest risk from the virus because of a strongly suspected link between an outbreak of Zika in Brazil and a concurrent spike in microcephaly.

The new lab research, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, provides strong evidence that Zika virus targets human embryonic neural cells for infection — increasing the death of those cells, and stunting brain development. But the study also raises questions, including whether Zika virus infects neural cells in adults.

The number of pregnant women returning to the United States with Zika infections acquired abroad has been rising, according to the CDC. As of Feb. 17, the CDC had received reports of nine pregnant travelers with laboratory-confirmed Zika virus. Ten additional reports of Zika virus among pregnant women are currently under investigation. No Zika virus–related hospitalizations or deaths among pregnant women were reported.

Pregnancy outcomes among the nine confirmed cases included two miscarriages, two elective terminations and three live births — two apparently healthy infants, and one infant with severe microcephaly, the CDC reported.

9 U.S. pregnant travelers with Zika virus infection identified as of Feb. 17

Two pregnancies are continuing without known complications, the CDC said.

Confirmed cases of Zika virus infection were reported among women who had traveled to one or more of the following nine areas with ongoing local transmission of Zika virus: American Samoa, Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Samoa.

There is no vaccine for Zika virus, which generally causes a rash, fever and joint pain that can last from one week to 10 days, according to the CDC. The virus is primarily transmitted by mosquito bites, the CDC said infections have also been reported through blood transfusions and by men to their sexual partners.

Zika cases in Florida as of March 4 (all acquired outside state)

County

Number of Cases

Alachua

1

Brevard

1

Broward

6

Hillsborough

3

Lee

3

Miami-Dade

23

Orange

3

Osceola

1

Santa Rosa

1

Seminole

1

St. Johns

1

Cases involving pregnant women*

4

Total

48

Source: Florida Department of Health

In this photo taken on Monday, Feb. 29, 2016, provided by Florida State University, Professor Hengli Tang (right) confers with his graduate student and co-author, Sarah Ogden, about the next steps in their Zika virus research in Tangs lab at FSU, in Tallahassee. Tang is a lead author of a lab study that found the Zika virus infects embryonic cells that help form the brain, adding to evidence that Zika causes a serious birth defect. The new work provides experimental evidence that once the virus reaches the developing brain, it can infect and harm cells that are key for further brain development, Tang said. FSU Photography ServicesAP

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